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... in order to enhance an already-existing feeling of well-being. Some people also use cigarettes in order to stimulate them (Thompkins, 1966). Since the start of writing this essay, instead of smoking in my break, I made the conscious effort to eat something instead and realised that I subconsciously would usually have a cigarette, when working, to help me concentrate. Thompkins (1966) also noted that some people use smoking for the pleasure of handling the cigarette. This is much more typical in pipe-smokers, who spend a long time filling their pipe and less than ten minutes smoking it.
This is a behaviour that positively reinforces smoking. In this sense, my smoking was pleasurable in the onset stage, as buying lighters, little boxes to hold cigarettes and ash-trays filled my boredom and appealed to my behaviour of collecting and hoarding small items. At the same time, there are many smokers who use the cigarette to reduce negative feelings. The cigarette becomes a catch, where the person will light a cigarette when feeling angry, upset or nervous (Thompkins, 1966).
Psychologically, nicotine acts to reinforce smoking behaviours each time a cigarette is smoked. The smoker learns that each time he or she smokes, they will be rewarded with a high, or a sense of relaxation. When nicotine wears off, withdrawal symptoms are experienced, causing the smoker to return to cigarettes in order to be reinforced with another high. As a result, aversive symptoms are avoided, and a cycle begins of smoking to avoid withdrawal and obtain pleasure (Kraft et al. 1998). By this point, smoking has become a habit and the smoker feels the need for the next cigarette build up form the time he puts out the cigarette he has been smoking. This can be very distressing for the smoker and when my smoking was at its highest prevalence last year, at fifteen cigarettes a day, I would go out in the middle of the night to get cigarettes because I feared the next day where one would not be available when I needed it.
At this time, like many others who continue to smoke after the initial few months of trying cigarettes, I did not use cigarettes to manage affect, but instead was smoking out of habit. It was only when my compulsive behaviour was noted by my friends, that I myself realised I had become addicted to cigarettes. Indeed, in 1977, Green stated that man is simply not rational enough to appreciate the danger smoking poses to health, which would have to be the major motive for quitting. It is only after I have decided to stop smoking that I notice the discomforts I was suffering due to my habit, such as a soar throat, bad cough and coated tongue. Psychological factors are obviously important in the initiation of smoking, especially since it is only actively decided whether one will smoke or not.
However, once started, the many negative effects of smoking are visible, so why do people continue or maintain this bad habit? Here, psychology is important in that it explains why an addictive behaviour is maintained, but the social factors must be considered, since these social predictors influence beliefs and behaviour, as an individual psychologically processes them. This is the basis of Banduras Social Cognitive Theory (1986), which emphasises the effects of environment and cognition's on behaviour, as well as the effects of behaviour on environment and cognition's. Studies have shown that modelling of tobacco use, especially by parents, is a major determinant of smoking in adolescents (Godard, 1990; Patton et al. 1998) who are twice as likely to smoke if their parents smoke (Lader & Matheson, 1991).
The smoking habits of a teens mother in particular, are very influential and act as one of the greatest long-term predictors of daily smoking (Oygard et al. 1995). Murray et al. (1984) found that even parental attitudes toward smoking is important as a social predictor influencing an individuals thoughts about cigarette use, since adolescents were seven times less likely to smoke if they perceived their parents to be against smoking. The Cancer Research Campaign in 1992, found that the attitude of the school is also important, where the prevalence of smoking was lower in schools that have a no-smoking policy, particularly if this included staff as well as children (Ogden, 2000). Recent studies have also examined the impact of genetics on smoking maintenance (Hughes, 1986). Twin studies suggest that genetic factors do contribute to tobacco use and estimates of heritability of the habit of smoking range from thirty-five to sixty-eight percent (American Thoracic Society, 1995).
The hypothesis presented is that the mechanism for a genetic influence may be differences in sensitivity to the toxic effects of nicotine. However, smoking behaviour is multi-faceted, and there are still people who begin and then continue to smoke, who show little or no evidence for this genetic link. In conclusion, Pro chaska & Diclemente (1984) proposed the Transtheoretical Model of Behaviour Change. Each stage in the model, when applied to smoking behaviour, is influenced by different factors. In the Pre contemplation stage, the individual is not thinking about smoking, but receives messages about it. At this stage, parental smoking, advertising and films all exert a heavy influence on the cognition's about smoking.
In the Contemplation stage, the individual receives images and peer influence, which build up to the point that curiosity takes over and the person considers trying a cigarette. The behaviour of friends and social predictors come into play here. The Initiation occurs as most young people try smoking, but the majority do not become regular smokers, At this stage it is important to note peers are usually the strongest influence. Young people may become addicted to nicotine after smoking a small number of cigarettes (McNeill et al. 1986) and regular smoking may involve a new set of influences, As well as addiction and habituation, personal factors such as the beliefs about the benefits of smoking, self-efficacy, self-perception and coping join the early influences. In maintenance of smoking, the continuation of regular smoking, all the psychological and social factors are important, but addiction to nicotine, a biological, or pharmacological factor, plays the greatest role.
The onset and maintenance of smoking behaviour is clearly complex (Conrad, Flay & Hill, 1992) and this is perhaps why numerous attempts in initiating cessation of smoking in individuals will continue to fail, on the majority of people, until the individual is taken into account, since psychological factors differ from one person to the next.
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